The Mountain Goats, Pro-Wrestling, and Storytelling

I've been listening to a lot of The Mountain Goats lately, and their new album "Beat the Champ". I don't know why I've started having such an interest in this album, it never scored really high on my Mountain Goats album-meter until now.

Coincidentally, I learned that one of my coworkers in the parking garage turns out to be a huge pro-wrestling fan. We ended up watching a WWE match yesterday on his phone as we watched cars depart from the Mary Poppins show at the Ohio Theater.

I only found out the truth of wrestling as a performance about a year and a half ago. Before that, if I ever started pondering it, I would rack myself crazy wondering why/how people would/could have beat up people for a living. The idea of having so much hatred and adrenaline was foreign to me. Luckily, the mask was pulled from my face via the Radiolab episode "La Mancha Screwjob", and it all clicked. The sport was for entertainment much more than it was for raw guttural feelings of hatred.

Ever since, it's enticed me to why pro-wrestling is entertaining, how people look at it as being "good or bad", and what about it exactly makes people flock to it. I mean, it's so over the top. Yelling, fireworks, large, almost cartoonish ironclad fonts for their logos and advertising. Are we actually going on pure aesthetic here, or are we just being extremely trolled? Is the sport's ridiculousness why we should enjoy it? How meta are the producers getting? How about the fans?

Going back to the opening: The Mountain Goats' album explores a lot more than simply pro-wrestling. "Beat the Champ" uses the sport as a lens through which many other deeper issues and themes emerge. Relationships with family members and friends, to dealing with internal strife and the feelings of trying to make it in this world, the album delves into those places that I feel I am in right now.

I sat there in the garage, thinking about how much of this world is performance, and how much of it intersects with reality. Of how difficult it is sometimes to discern that line. and those times when you can, and can't. Much like my younger self, ill acquainted with what wrestling truly is; life often seems like reality where it may actually be a performance.

Then that begs the question: What about all those who are a part of the wrestling world? The producers and wrestlers themselves are obviously onto the game, but what about the fans? Do they all take part in this higher level thinking entertainment because they know it is fake? Or is it really fake? I've long been a fan of saying authenticity is bullshit, and this may be one place where that statement might have some sort of cohesive argument behind it.

Few fans seem blessedly ignorant to the fact it's mostly staged. It appears as though many people forward to the performances. Certain move sets, antics, and personalities, not to simply see people beat the crap out of each other. So can we still say that is fake if fans are still deriving positive entertainment from the performance? I would say no. Their experiences are real, and they still come back to watch the matches, and keep up with the sport. They enjoy it.

And I think I'm starting to too.

Under the Statehouse

First off: This blog will catalog and archive some of my thoughts about my experiences in central Ohio as I work towards the next step of my journey. It may be a short one, depending on how my job prospects go as I keep reaching out for that next step.

So. I found part-time intermittent work under the Ohio Statehouse Capitol building. Literally underneath. I am a parking garage attendant. The arrangement is actually quite nice. I work as a state employee, therefore I am a government employee. (Student loan forgiveness baby!) My main responsibilities include: cleaning stairwells, operating gates and troubleshooting pay-on-foot stations. The experience has actually been a lot better than I was expecting.

The Statehouse, and Capitol Square, are totally different places from a workers standpoint. There is clearance needed, officials to keep appearances up for, and lots of events at the theaters around the square. No longer are you marveling at the map room or the rotunda. No tours for the workers. Your job is to make sure the people coming in to park are sought after and have the easiest and best time they can for a parking garage. Your main portion is spent underground, and what you do see of upstairs, it is usually while you are emerging from tunnels to deliver/receive different things.

I do like it though. There's something about being subterranean for eight hours of the day. The position is easy enough, and I have great company to pass the slow times with. It's ideal for working and focusing on your life and others, and to keep your mind working and in shape. (Also keeping my body in a little bit of shape because there is so much walking to do.)

For now I'm underground four days a week, and I don't mind it at all. I'm proud to be the first line of response when someone needs help on how to park, and where to go for events. It gives me some income, keeps me active, and best of all, lets me start to think on next steps for my life.